Auto Mall to expand with Maserati, others

Tuesday

Jun 17, 2014 at 10:56 PMJun 17, 2014 at 10:59 PM

By Fatima Husseinfatima.hussein@news-jrnl.com

DAYTONA BEACH — Daytona International Auto Mall is set to grow, with the addition of two dealerships next year that will sell Maseratis and Mini Coopers.The new dealerships and a store that will specialize in Ram pickups are part of a series of projects that will expand the Auto Mall from seven acres to 12 and complete the build-out of the complex 14 years after it opened with a single dealership.The expansion is set to begin in 60 days with the breaking ground of new facilities for two existing Auto Mall dealerships — Fields BMW of Daytona and Daytona Nissan. The new homes for both dealerships will be south of where the Auto Mall currently ends.Also set to begin in 60 days is the construction of the new Maserati of Daytona dealership on the north end of the Auto Mall, according to owner Randy Dye, who said the dealership will include another “brand name” vehicle line that he is not yet ready to announce.Dye — who owns the Daytona Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram and Fiat of Daytona Beach dealerships at the Auto Mall — also will own the new Ram-only store, which will be called Ram Truck Center of Daytona and Ram Commercial Vehicles.The Ram dealership will take over the Nissan dealership’s present location while Maserati will take over the site where the Nissan dealership currently has its administrative offices.The Nissan dealership is owned by a partnership group, separate from Dye, that includes Gary Yeomans, one of the founders of the Auto Mall.The Mini Cooper dealership will take over the present location of the BMW dealership, which is owned by the Fields Group. The expansion projects will complete the build-out of the Auto Mall, which opened in 2001 with a single dealership: Gary Yeomans Ford Lincoln, said Gary Yeomans, the dealership’s namesake and part-owner.“We’re in the final developments of the mall,” Yeomans said.Dye said his Fiat dealership will start selling Maserati vehicles this summer. Prices for the luxury Italian sports cars range from mid-$60,000s to more than $100,000.“Once construction begins, we will be able to begin receiving Maserati vehicles that we will, for a brief period, have available in our Fiat dealership,” he said.While the average annual wage for workers in Volusia County is in the mid-$30,000s, Dye said he anticipates his Maserati dealership will draw customers from a wider area, thanks to its convenient location along Interstate 95. The closest Maserati dealerships are currently in Orlando and Jacksonville.Dye also said new Maserati models, such as the 2014 Ghibli model, which start at less than $68,000, are on par with prices for Mercedes and BMW vehicles.“The way Maserati is headed — it’s going to mirror Mercedes and BMW and I definitely think this area has the demographics to support this,” he said.Dye said his planned 35,000-square-foot Ram Store will carry both new pickups as well as “a significant amount of used trucks.” Ram pickups are the best-selling vehicle in Chrysler’s Dodge division.Dye said he intends to hire an additional 30 to 45 people to work at his Maserati and Ram store, which is also set to be completed in eight months. Also adding jobs and dealerships is the Fields Group, which operates the Volkswagen and BMW dealerships at the Auto Mall. Chris DeCarlo, parts and service director at Fields BMW, said the new BMW facility and new Mini Cooper dealership should be open by this time next year. “We’re going to expand our footprint,” Dye said, regarding the overall expansion of the Auto Mall. The additions of the new Maserati and Mini Cooper lots will increase total number of different vehicle brands sold at the Auto Mall to 16, he said.Yeomans said the expansion projects are a reflection of the belief shared by the owners of the dealerships at the Auto Mall that the local economy is going to continue to improve.Dye agreed.“Volusia County is a great community and you have to have a lot of faith in your community to make this kind of investment — and we do,” Dye said. “We have a lot of faith in the citizens, the government and the economic climate here.”